Mistra Innovation aiming for extension

Mistra Innovation recently held its closing conference, Resultatdagen (‘Results Day’), where it presented the results from eight years of research ambitions among small and medium-sized Swedish companies. A huge catalogue of finished products and new solutions was presented.

‘We’ve been highly successful at connecting SMEs with academia. Seven or eight products have been developed that are either on or on their way into the market,’ says Lars Frenning.
Frenning has been Programme Director of Mistra Innovation, whose challenge has been to open up academia to small businesses with innovations that promote a better environment.
Among the specific successes, he mentions a new type of lubricating oil for, forestry and other machines, based on environment-friendly glycerol instead of heavy oil. Another innovation concerns sorting of discarded light bulbs, while a third product is a sensor that can measure air pollution and report straight to a mobile app. The list can be made longer.
During the conference, which had some 50 attendees, there were 90-second presentations on 12 of the projects. Presentation stands were then set up along the walls.
‘It’s a somewhat special format that we’ve developed at Mistra Innovation,’ Frenning says.
The Mistra Innovation programme was so successful that Mistra’s Board decided on a new call for proposals on the same theme: Mistra Innovation 23. The call closed on 2 October this year.